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PRESS RELEASE
The Czech National Ballet presents
ROMEO AND JULIET
Juliet’s sorrow and Romeo’s grief in ballet
Music: Sergey Prokofiev
Choreography and stage direction: Petr Zuska
Conductor: Václav Zahradník / Sergej Poluektov
Sets: Jan Dušek
Costumes: Roman Šolc
Lighting design: Petr Zuska, Pavel Dautovský
State Opera Orchestra
Czech National Ballet soloists and corps
Premiere: 14 November 2013 at the State Opera
2nd premiere performance: 15 November 2013 at the State Opera
William Shakespeare’s tragic tale, the most famous love story of all time, has been touching
hearts for centuries. Sergey Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet had its world premiere in
Czechoslovakia, on 30 December 1938 at the National Theatre in Brno, and has ever since
adorned the repertoire of all the world’s large stages. Romeo and Juliet has been traditionally
among the most successful productions at the National Theatre. A new version of the
celebrated title, conceived in the spirit of Neo-Classicist dance aesthetics, has been created
by Petr Zuska, choreographer and Artistic Director of the Czech National Ballet. It will be the
sixth version presented by our company in its history.
Appearing in the lead roles:
Queen Mab – Nikola Márová / Miho Ogimoto
Friar Laurence – Viktor Konvalinka / Alexandre Katsapov
Juliet – Marta Drastíková / Andrea Kramešová
Romeo – Ondřej Vinklát / Francesco Scarpato
Mercutio – Mathias Deneux / Matěj Šust
Tybalt – Giovanni Rotolo / Marek Svobodník
Lady Montague – Rebecca King / Michaela Wenzelová
Capulet – Michal Štípa / Jiří Kodym
QUEEN MAB
“Oh, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
Queen Mab, what’s she?
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomi
Over men’s noses as they lie asleep.”
The tragic tale of ill-fated love between the teenage Juliet and Romeo, framed by the
hatred between the feuding Montague and Capulet clans, needs no introduction. Petr
Zuska, Artistic Director of the Czech National Ballet, has ventured to conceive the
Národní divadlo, balet
Anenské náměstí 2, Praha 1 – 112 30
www.narodni-divadlo.cz
PRESS RELEASE
famous work in a novel manner, yet at the same time with due respect to both
Shakespeare and Prokofiev. In addition to the lead characters, he accentuates the
personage of Friar Laurence, a Renaissance man standing up to the absurdity of
social mores and striving to help the love-struck couple. He represents a symbol of
human faith in God, in Good and happy endings. Laurence’s antipode is Queen Mab,
a mythical ruler of shadows, the “midwife of dreams and phantoms”. By means of
Laurence and Mab, the story is permeated by a clash between the male and female
principles, between Ying and Yang, between rational planning and unpredictable
chance.
When approximately a year ago I began pondering how to approach the Romeo and Juliet theme, I felt
that I wanted to create a production that would possess something special, unique, different, something
that I hadn’t yet seen. At the same time, I wanted to eschew cheap gimmicks and not “offend”
Shakespeare and Prokofiev.
I set off from the character of Friar Laurence, who in the vast majority of ballet versions is just a “walkon” role, without a wider scope being afforded to his character and soul. I identified Laurence as a
symbol of human belief in God, Good, Order, in the success of a good plan to the satisfaction of
everyone. In the final analysis, Laurence is also the most tragic character, since owing to unforeseeable
Chance everything slips beyond his control. His good will thus indirectly leads to the final tragedy. And
what’s worst – he himself stays alive.
His “opponent” is Mab, Queen of the realm of dreams and shadows, an abstract quantity, as mentioned
by Mercutio in one of the play’s longest and most intriguing soliloquies. Mab represents the irrationality
of life and being. She is neither good nor bad, but both at the same time, similarly to how we perceive
love and death from our viewpoint. Mab personifies unpredictability and uncontrollability, and, although
a translucent invisible figure, it is she who pulls the strings.
Whereas Laurence epitomises the typical aspects of the male principle, Mab embodies the purely
female principle. The conflict between and co-existence of these principles, as two incompatible and
concurrently magnetising polarities, is nothing but the old archetypal thesis of existence. In this way, we
can symbolically place against each other Sun and Moon, Ying and Yang, and many other seeming
opposites.
In a broader context, the conflict between Friar Laurence and Queen Mab can also be perceived as a
conflict between the Human and God (or, if you prefer, the Universe), whereby, naturally, the Human
has no chance. Just as reason is ultimately vanquished by emotion, brain by heart, knowledge by
dream and … to be globally topical – prosperity by crisis. It always concerns two sides of the same
coin, which, unfortunately, are mostly in imbalance.
If we descend from metaphysical heights back down to earth, it is possible, with slight simplification, to
substitute the mentioned antipodes with Man and Woman. Two totally different groups of human beings
who eternally oscillate on the edge between mutual attraction and the inevitable, perpetual
misunderstanding and antagonism.
William Shakespeare cannily does not reveal the actual reason for the age-long feud between the
Montagues and Capulets. I hope, however, all these centuries later, that the Bard will forgive me the
slight specification within my approach to his theme.
How the aforementioned permeates with the action of the story itself and how it pervades the
inescapable fate of Romeo and Juliet, that I leave upon your experience.
Petr Zuska
Helena Bartlová
PR, Czech National Ballet
Anenské nám. 2, Praha 1
Tel: +420 224 902 527
Mobile: +420 737 205 899
Email: [email protected]
www.narodni-divadlo.cz
Národní divadlo, balet
Anenské náměstí 2, Praha 1 – 112 30
www.narodni-divadlo.cz